Religion-Is it still the same?

Many people wonder about Religion. What is religion? Who is god? Why are there so many religions? What does our religion tell us to do?

Before expressing my opinion, and strictly my opinion, I apologize with all those who would disagree with me. Consider this as a figment of a youth’s reverie about something, she sees, hears and preaches every day.

Whenever I sit with my peers, the most favorite topic of discussion is “Religion”. I think I know why. We generally hear our elders saying – “Don’t eat non-vegetarian on Tuesdays!”; “Perform Surya Namaskar every morning!”; “Try to wear yellow clothes in Thursdays” etc. I realized that on one particular Tuesday I did eat non-vegetarian and nothing happened to me. Nothing at all! In fact, on the very same day I was appreciated of my hard work at my office. Then why wasn’t I feeling happy about it? Why was it that there was some kind of a guilt inside me that was constantly churning in my stomach.

And then I realized what stopped me every Tuesday and that was my mother. Whenever I came from the Hostel, my mother, despite her job used to cook for me all my favorite dishes.

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She would buy new clothes as a surprise for me and keep them in my cupboard at home, so that I don’t need to carry a heavy suitcase every time I come back home. She used to miss me a lot but used to make sure that she doesn’t say anything to me on phone, so that I am able to concentrate in college and now in my job and do well, instead of just thinking about home. I realized, that there was a strength in me which was not of my own but stimulated by my mother. So if she says that I should not be eating Non-Vegetarian on Tuesdays, can’t I just follow it?

I read a book (which was on similar lines), written by a famous author who was an atheist and he started it with a quote “I never knew I could”. I agree with that. Most of the times we are so habitual of blindly following the ideals that our elders teach that we forget if we are believing in a particular religion or somebody else’s faith. The youth of today is not against religion, but against the ideals that the religions today preach. “Two people of different religions got married, and the couple was killed”, this is what agitates the youth. Some people convert to religions, because they are not able to fit in their own religious communities due to caste, region, creed, sex etc., this is what agitates the youth of today.

Ideals need to change, principles need to mould again and again with the changing times. By this I don’t say that accept something that is totally unacceptable, in fact, preaching something blindly, just on the basis of somebody else’s faith that stands higher to you in any respect, should be anti- religion. Serving my mother, by giving in to her superstitions, because at the end of the day she has done it all for me should be my religion. Understanding that god doesn’t reside in petty superstitions but in the fact that we are doing the right thing all the time should be her religion.

Religion is not about just preaching or following but about understanding what is being asked preached by it. I think, it is not the religion, but our faith that matters. Your religion should be nothing but to believe in yourself. This believe should be within the boundaries of your own world and that if it influences anyone, it should merely be for his/her good and not being termed as a dogmatic principle also called as religion. What agitates youth is when they are asked to believe in principles that no longer stand relevant today. We all need to understand that there need to be some underlying principles on which all the human beings should define their existence; however, these principles need to be the same for everyone. As it is, every religion says the same thing, same principles are followed and same instructions are given, so there is no need to make specific engineers to guard these religions. Uniqueness doesn’t come by caste, color, creed, sex or religion; it comes with our deeds and this we need to understand.

Of course this is a very ideal situation. Every country has a history and the deeds of the past can never be forgotten or easily eroded. However, we need to understand that this is where religion takes everything from us. Let’s make out constitution our religion. Pledging to serve one’s own country is beyond any faith, beyond any believe, yet again as our religion states we need to rise above the temptations of power and greed. We need to accept that invading one’s country is like eroding one’s religion which should be prohibited. Yet again, this forms an ideal situation.

The above examples were discussed to understand that religion tarnished with power, greed, self-interest etc doesn’t remain religion anymore. We are attacking the very foundation of religion and at the end there is no point of having one. Let’s leave it pure.